Hunt, Peter. Children's Literature: the Development of Criticism. London and New York: Routledge, 1990.

Luthi, Max O. Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana U.Press, 1976.

Children's books (other than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Prisoners of the Sun) may be borrowed from the Jones Library (Town Library, on Amity Street) or purchased at the Jeffrey Amherst Bookshop on North Pleasant Street in Amherst. Certain picturebooks featured in the first part of the course (Where the Wild Things Are, Curious George, The Story about Ping) will be read in class and need not be purchased or borrowed.

Earn passing grades on all short quizzes. One quiz grade may be deleted at your option.

Fill out and return feedback sheets when due during the semester.

*If you do not receive a passing grade on an assigned paper, you may rewrite and resubmit the paper within one week after the original paper has been returned to you with a grade. If you do not receive a passing grade on an examination, you may, with the instructor's permission, make up the examination by taking a second examination and writing an additional paper.

TIPS

Notice that you may choose which of the recommended children's stories you read each week of the semester. Exercise that choice! The more widely you read, the better informed will your choice of children's books be, come the time when you must write a critical paper.

Avoid the rush. The Jones Library cannot meet borrowers' demands for certain books a week before papers are due.

Try the Forbes Library in Northampton, the Munson Library in South Amherst, the North Amherst Library and, as a last resort, the University Library, for children's books you cannot find at the Jones.

ASSIGNED READINGS

I. INTRODUCTION TO THE READING OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Jan. 27: Introduction: scope, aims, methods

Feb. 1: Four axes of transformation: "The Adventures of Mrile" (hand-out); Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are

African: Mulungu and the Beasts (separate hand-out), When the Sky was Close, p.39, The Tower to Heaven, pp. 41f., The Separation of God from Man, pp. 42-47, How the Lame Boy Brought Fire From Heaven, pp. 100-102, How the Earth Folk Received Fire, pp. 102f., Fire from Heaven, pp. 1O3f

Recommended:

John Burningham, Where's Julius?

Heinrich Hoffmann, Struwwelpeter, "The Very Sad Story of the Matches"

Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

Virginia Lee Burton, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

William Steig, Solomon the Rusty Nail

April 5: Taxonomy by twos II: the shaping of perspective

Required:

Grimm: The Pink, pp.282-286.

Recommended:

Roald Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World

Alan Garner, The Moon of Gomrath

Virginia Hamilton, Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush

April 7: Animal talk, human hearing

Required:

Thompson: The Three Languages, pp. 306-308, The Language of the Animals, pp. 303-306, Anpu and Bata, pp. 36-44

Grimm: The Three Languages, pp. 124-126, The White Snake, pp. 67-70

Hungarian: The Man Who Understood the Language of the Animals, pp. 257-259

*Thompson: The Rich Man and his Son-In-Law, pp. 137-142, The Self-Propelled Carriage, pp. 194-199, Godfather Death, pp. 73-76, Friends in Life and Death, pp. 147-150, King Bean, pp. 122-126, *The King Who Wanted a Beautiful Wife, pp. 353-355, *East of the Sun, West of the Moon, pp. 113-122, The Frog Princess, pp. 93-97